EPA Faces a Freeze & Friendly Fire: The EPA has been ordered to freeze all its grants and contracts, including programs for climate research, environmental justice, and pollution prevention, according to internal communications leaked anonymously to several outlets Monday evening. It’s unclear if the freeze is permanent, and EPA staff are under orders to not discuss the move outside the agency, the sources told press. News of the freeze and gag order comes a day after Axios leaked details of the transition team’s “agency action” plan for EPA, which accuses EPA of “us[ing] regulatory policy to steer the science” and recommends that the agency stop funding science and overhaul its internal science advisory process “to eliminate conflicts of interest and inherent bias.” Axios also quoted a Republican lobbyist who flags “dozens” of EPA-related executive orders coming down the pike in the next month. Sources: (Grant freeze: Huffington Post, ProPublica, Washington Post $, The Hill. Agency action plan: Axios, The Hill. EOs: Axios. Commentary: Vox, Brad Plumer analysis, Buzzfeed, Dino Grandoni analysis)

CDC, Fearing Trump, Pulls Climate Summit: The Centers for Disease Control has “quietly” cancelled an upcoming summit on public health and climate change, Climatewire reported Monday. The summit, originally scheduled to occur next month in Atlanta, had a focus on the current science between climate and health and the “translation of science to practice” in dealing with the issue. While CDC officials told summit participants they were “exploring options” for rescheduling, former CDC staff and experts stipulate that it’s likely the agency nixed the summit to avoid political reprisal from the Trump administration. (Climatewire, Washington Post $, WSJ $, AP, CNN, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, The Hill, The Verge, AJC)

Trump Eyes DAPL As Water Protectors Regroup: In his first official press conference as White House press secretary, Sean Spicer strongly implied that the Trump administration will push through both the Dakota Access and Keystone pipelines as part of its “America First” energy plan. When asked about executive order plans for both pipelines, Spicer deferred on providing specifics, but added that the pipelines are “areas that we can increase jobs, increase economic grown, and tap into America’s energy supply.” Spicer’s comments come a few days after the Standing Rock Sioux tribal council, anticipating messy spring floods, passed a resolution ordering protesters to vacate the Cannon Ball site by January 30. In the leadup to last week’s inauguration, dozens of protesters were arrested as the movement regroups around strategies to face the new administration and extend demonstrations beyond North Dakota. (Trump: The Hill, Grist, Fusion, @rebleber. Council resolution: InsideClimate News, CBC, Bismarck Tribune. Protests/what’s next: WSJ $, CNN, High Country News, Independent)

Take the EPA, leave the good that it has done and still does sometimes… Clean water and air and attention to polluters and throw out the political and ridiculous crappola it has done on account of fanaticism and political pressure. That should leave about 1/5 or less of the EPA as it is in order to just monitor things… Not to make any policy or regulations…Just report. Cut their legs out from under them and only leave reasonable, educated, and honest people in charge.
Also, being a citizen of California, the rest of the United States should declare war on my State because it has fallen to fanatic, idiotic, leftist scumbags who have no idea about much of anything except taking our taxpayer money and throwing it away on idiotic, leftist BS and ruining the economy here. If I could leave here, I would, in a short minute because this place is going to hell really fast and the supporters have no idea of the reality of what they are supporting. Our eden is turning into a socialistic, leftist hell on earth. California went from the 4th largest economy in the world to, now, somewhere in the 40th largest or less in the last 15 years under liberal, democratic rule. I would agree with “Someone” that there is a very large voter fraud problem here and also a “welfare” paid voter population in California. Free drivers licences if you are illegal, and just about free, taxpayer paid free everything…Just not for actual citizens and taxpayers. Nuke this F***ing place as far as I’m concerned. It is no longer part of the U.S. It no longer cares about the regular people who pay for it to exist.

These are just baby steps. They need to strip climate funds at NASA and redirect it to real science and core mission. They need to conduct a lot of internal investigations of malfeasance and incompetence at EPA, State Dept., Interior, NOAA, and redirect high-cost versions of renewables at DoD back to real defense. These are also just baby steps….in the right direction.

Okay, I yield to the Janice. No renewables is okay after the fraud and mishandling of defense funds to date. BTW those widely spaced, archaic, small solar panels arrays from Nellis AFB that were so often used in stock photos for renewable energy should get some kind of citation for waste and spending abuse on par with the overpriced toilets in Pentagon spending annuls of history.

Give him a couple of days. He’s got 8 years of crap backed up in the pipes that he’s got to rooter out. Just today he restarted Keystone and DAPL and put a lid on the EPA. Tomorrow the wall. Heck it might even take a couple of weeks, but it looks like he’s checking his way on down the list of promises. When was the last time you EVER saw that from an elected person? (I’m hesitant to call him a politician).

I kind doubt that the CDC would suffer the wrath of Trump, overall it’s a serious institution with a real and important work. However it’s good to know they are trying to preserve that reputation by getting rid of those policies of trying to hammer the climate change narrative into diseases.

The CDC should be limited to diseases caused by a biological organism or other physiological causes. Psychological territory should be the realm of NIMH. Likewise NASA need to get out of the climate business, NOAA is the proper venue for whatever climate work required.

No argument from me, we need to be prosecuting and jailing the political scumbags who have been abusing our government agencies. That is my point. Azz bang them and everyone connected to them. Then do it again, just cause we can.

I used to agree with your view but then Dr Thompson (of the CDC) got whistle blower protection and gave congress a huge pile of data that he had been ordered to destroy. Smart fellow kept it. It clearly shows a 340% rise in autism in black males who get the MMR vaccine before the age of 3.

Congress has been sitting on it for 2 1/2 years doing SFA because pharma is one of their largest donors.

I’m hoping Trump will get some serious investigation going. It could be as simple as delay until after 3 or have blacks take vitamin D3 before shots. Until we quit letting the CDC destroy evidence and face reality they are no better than the climate scientists who fix the numbers.

“On 27 August 2014, Dr. Hooker’s article published in the journal Translational Neurodegeneration that concluded “African American males receiving the MMR vaccine prior to 24 months of age or 36 months of age are more likely to receive an autism diagnosis” was removed from public domain due to issues of conflict of interest and the questionable validity of its methods:

The Editor and Publisher regretfully retract the article as there were undeclared competing interests on the part of the author which compromised the peer review process. Furthermore, post-publication peer review raised concerns about the validity of the methods and statistical analysis, therefore the Editors no longer have confidence in the soundness of the findings.

The CDC issued a statement regarding the data in question, with instructions for accessing the study at the center of the controversy. As the CDC noted, the authors of that study suggested that the most likely explanation for the moderate correlation between autism and vaccination in young children was the existence of immunization requirements for autistic children enrolled in special education preschool programs:

Access to the information on the birth certificates allowed researchers to assess more complete information on race as well as other important characteristics, including possible risk factors for autism such as the child’s birth weight, mother’s age, and education. This information was not available for the children without birth certificates; hence CDC study did not present data by race on black, white, or other race children from the whole study sample. It presented the results on black and white/other race children from the group with birth certificates.

The study looked at different age groups: children vaccinated by 18 months, 24 months, and 36 months. The findings revealed that vaccination between 24 and 36 months was slightly more common among children with autism, and that association was strongest among children 3-5 years of age. The authors reported this finding was most likely a result of immunization requirements for preschool special education program attendance in children with autism.”

MarkW. Having a son, born in 1991 and who was growing up quite normally and who then, within a few days of his getting his 18 month old vaccinations, began to have fevers and unexplained illnesses and stopped advancing normally after those vaccinations, and who, today, at 25, needs constant supervision, I have a real problem with people who deny a link between vaccines and mental / brain damage in infants and younger children. Immune systems during infancy and early childhood are not ready, in some cases, to be exposed to the viruses, bacteria, toxins, preservatives, etc. which used to come with those vaccines back then and which may still be included. There is a huge disincentive against anyone finding a link between childhood vaccinations and the damages that they probably have caused. It would cost big Pharma and doctors, insurance companies a lot of money… Which is a great reason for the “huge” denial by those same entities. I suspect that if it was your son or daughter who was afflicted with the damage done by a vaccine, suspected, that your mind would be much more accepting of the possibility.

Yes, and don’t tell us during an Ebola crisis that the CDC only has 3 beds for high risk containment cases. The public needs to see just how hollow and mismanaged the Federal agencies are before budget request time.

For example, CDC studies show what a great job we are doing cleaning up the environment. Their random blood and hair samples found no pregnant women and children were above the threshold of harm for environmental mercury.

It was the EPA that took the data and made a misleading statement that 16,000 pregnant women and children were at risk. 100% of the world population is ‘at risk’ but it is the actual harm that is important.

Don’t overlook the efforts in recent years to promote “climate medicine” as a means to secure extra money from the climate pool for health researchers. Another important scientific field distracted from real needs.

In its purest form the CDC targeted epidemics. In that roll of public health they could be justified under the “General Welfare” part. True, most epidemics were identified and controlled by local and state health departments but having a central clearing house has certain advantages – I believe they were instrumental in Legionnaires Disease for example. Unfortunately they badly overstepped their original mandate. The CDC has no business evaluating vaccines, for instance, we have a FDA for that, for instance.

@Ronda R
The “General Welfare” clause was not intended by the framers as a get-out-of-jail-free card for Congresscritters to pass anything they wanted. It has to be taken into account with the enumerated powers and responsibilities. Look up Davy Crockett and Horatio Bunce.

Resourceguy nails it, these are all good starts, now time to turn the screws internally. Gut the number of employees inside ALL government agencies, hold department and division heads directly responsible. A good way to short circuit Democrat Party obstruction tactics is to put them all to work in House and Senate going through ALL Federal Government agencies, give them no time to f**k around with TV sound byte sh*t by flooding their offices with the legitimate work of Congress. Make them do the job their are actually required to be doing.

We’re talking past each other here. Just to clarify: my comment was only about the author’s misuse of the term “friendly fire” to describe the anti-Obama-policy orders (er, recommendations, eye roll) directed at the EPA.

As showed in his questioning of Scott Pruitt, Senator Sanders and others assume EPA is and should be a branch of the environmental movement, a common misconception now called into question.
Pruitt in his opening statement rejected the popular notion “if you are for the environment, you are against development, and if you are for development, you are against the environment.” Pruitt said EPA has the job of striking the balance, not buying into a false dichotomy.

I’m guessing there are a lot of such BS “climate change” initiatives scattered throughout the various government agencies that will get the boot by serious and newly unshackled administrators. I can’t imagine that DoD has any serious interest in “sustainable” or “green” fuels, etc., that were certainly forced upon them by the political operatives in the Obama administration. And “climate change” is a serious challenge for our Armed Forces? Get serious, really.

Actually I think moving the offices out of DC might solve a lot of problems. Move EPA to Helena MT; IRS to Idaho Falls, ID; Dept of Education to El Paso, TX and so on. Do not provide moving allowances. That would solve 90% of the entrenched bureaucrat problem right there without firing a single one.

No, do NOT move federal offices from blue states into any purple or red states where they can shift the color in the blue direction. Keep them in blue states where they can be contained and cause no further electoral harm. If anything, move federal offices in purple or red states into blue states.

BobM, the are some generals/admirals at DOD who got their lunch tickets punched by supporting crap like green fuel. It is probably their only claim to fame and they, like the rest of the rent seekers, will fight like h3ll to keep their status.

Let the private industry work on developing Biofuels, solar and wind without government funding, if ( and that is a big IF they will even put their own money into it) that happens. They can then to the government sell it or make money on their own. The people currently working under the military working on such programs need to get out of there.and the military should stick to what they do, be the military!

I would like to see Trump direct the appointees leading each Federal agency to conduct an employee review to determine who those people are that violated the Hatch Act… and then fire every one of them.

In the meantime, it seems like we are the cusp of seeing things not observed since the cheesy sci-fi movie “Mars Attacks”. In that movie, martian heads exploded when they heard a certain song. Seeing how apoplectic the libs have become even before Trump put pen to paper, I think it’s only a short period of time before liberal heads start exploding due to extremely high blood pressure levels.

Activists are in for a wild ride. So much will be coming down the pike that it will spread-thin the people and resources from even well organized groups, and just make them go home to cuddle their teddy-bears.

No, they will revert to being the bomb throwers that they are at heart. See arson cases of the past from ski resorts and the case of the premature bomb explosion of activists transporting devices also from the past.

“according to internal communications leaked anonymously to several outlets Monday evening. It’s unclear if the freeze is permanent, and EPA staff are under orders to not discuss the move outside the agency”.

I really hope Trump treats this as an act of treason and goes after the people who decided, in their infinite wisdom, that it would be really clever to covertly undermine a Presidential ‘expectation’ of discretion and integrity from public employees.

I suggest that Trump create a permanent “Oversight Panel” of independent experts (plus assistants) over the EPA to criticize its outputs and decisions both internally and publicly. I think all other governmental agencies and departments would be better reined in by having such red teams assigned to oversee them too.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is dead. Even some Dems seem to be happy about that. link I’m glad because some TPP provisions would allow corporations to hide all kinds of crap in their software. eg. Volkswagen’s emissions cheating software. link Software runs everything these days and our lives literally depend on software. Under no circumstances should corporations be allowed to hide what their software is doing. They have sufficient protections with copyright and patents.

The poster child for bad software is Toyota. They didn’t even follow their own rules, let alone industry standards. The result was that people died when their vehicles suddenly accelerated for no good reason. Toyota tried to blame it on senior citizen drivers. A very thorough code review exposed Toyota’s negligence. link

p.s. Think of all the climate scientists who want to hide their data and code so folks won’t see how bad it is. Major corporations are no different in their desire to hide their crap from public view.

Thanks for that link to the code review for the Toyota case. Fascinating reading! It makes me leary of the software-heavy vehicles like Telsa – I don’t want to be the person who discovers yet another flaw in their embedded software!

Auto electronics needs to be moved up to the DO-178B level. The same as planes.
I was involved in testing the software for Boing’s 777. We had to prove that every single line of code was tested and did what the design specs said it should.
I would say that we had about 10 times as much test code as we had deliverable code.
Test code also had to be peer reviewed.

An Executive Order by Obama, on January 13, was intended to insure that the transition staff at EPA were fully invested in the CPP, etc. But it may have laid the foundation for Trump to remove most all of the EPA’s senior staff. That order provided a sequence of succession regarding who is to be in charge if the Secretary is absent, incapacitated, resigned or removed from office. By identifying a clear path of succession the “next man up” so to speak, serves at the leisure of the President. So you fire the next man up, then fire the next man up, and so on, until all of McCarthy’s cronies are toast …. FILM at 11 …

This freeze is a great idea as a interim measure to keep the climate thieves from stealing or larding out every cent at their disposal in anticipation of thier jig being up.
Simply closing the spigot in the firehouse of money is the sanest things that can be done as a first step.

It’s not sufficient to get rid of the bums. It is really important that corruption and bad science should be exposed for everyone to see. We don’t want to create martyrs. One of the (many) things that sunk previous Canadian Prime Minister Harper was the idea that he was engaging in a war on science. That’s kind of a motherhood and apple pie issue … almost as bad as kicking puppies.

Very true. Trump should hire a bunch of contrarian climate educators to justify his policies to the media and to debate with warmists, especially at detailed scientific levels, as is done on the Climate Dialog site.

President Trump told the chief executives of the country’s largest automobile manufacturers Tuesday that environmental regulations are “out of control” and pledged to make it easier for the companies to open assembly plants in the United States. . . .
Trump said he plans to focus on “real regulations that mean something” and eliminate those that he considers inhospitable to business. The executives declined to answer questions after the meeting, including whether the president cited any specific regulations he would cut.

“I am, to a large extent, an environmentalist, I believe in it, but it’s out of control,” Trump said. . . .The president reportedly told executives that he intends to eliminate a majority of regulations and “massively” cut corporate taxes, but that in return those companies must keep production in the United States and preserve American jobs.

The executives were told to submit a “series of actions” that would boost U.S. manufacturing to Trump within the next 30 days.

It’s easy to create jobs when you are being given wheel barrow loads of other people’s money.
The problem, as always, is that the people who the money was taken from are producing fewer jobs.
Subsidies always result in fewer jobs, not more.

Yes, a good start so far for AGW. From the removal of “Climate Change” references on the White House internet site at midnight the day of inauguration to serving notice to various agencies that there’s a new sheriff and he won’t tolerate fake science and scaremongering in his town. Now it’s time for Trump’s cabinet picks to take over and press the message home.

EPA Administrator to-be Scott Pruiit’s confirmation hearings will be a full blown popcorn and beer worthy event. The Dims will be in full, foamy-mouthed, stupid mode as they attempt their pontification about a non-problem.

Myron Ebell’s [plan] recommended issuing “an executive order barring EPA from overruling federal/state regulatory/permit decisions unless in clear violation of established law.” . . . It also included “potential opportunities for budget reductions” at the agency that would cut $513 million from the “states and tribal assistance grants,” another $193 million in savings from ending climate change programs, and $109 million in savings from environment programs and management.

The best way for Trump to follow this up is to announce he is investing in ‘proper’ climate research, with proper oversight that is fully scrutinised, and without prejudice. And then pick the right people to lead those activities.
That way the all the people who claim he is a climate change denier, will not have a leg to stand on. Instead they will be scrambling for funding. But this time, they won’t be in control….

Regardless of what one thinks of the Keystone pipeline (I would fully support it if there weren’t eminent domain abuses involved), it’s funny to see Trump push the importation of Canadian oil as part of an “America First” energy program.

“Not building it would mean that it would be shipped overseas before or after processing.”

No, you are incorrect. Keystone terminates in a free trade zone, so any oil that is processed there must be sent overseas. Keystone will do nothing to help reduce US dependence on oil from outside North America.

I did not say the processed oil was going to be consumed in the U.S., only that it was going to be processed there, and that is what I understood from what I have read so far – that the crude was going to refineries at the Gulf coast. Without Keystone, it is either going to be refined instead in Canada or overseas.

Now all we need is for all the capped productive oil wells in the state to be reopened. A little drilling, a little fracking, and the Sooner State becomes the oil pan of the country again (complete with handle).

“America has built the equivalent of 10 Keystone pipelines since 2010 …
business.financialpost.com/…/america-has-built-the-equivalent-of-10-key…
3 Nov 2015 – By last year, the U.S. had built 12,000 miles of pipe since 2010. … compared to the 875 miles TransCanada wants to lay in the states of Montana, South … legal challenges and a rejection in 2012 by President Barack Obama. … While the northern leg of Keystone XL remains under review, the Lower 48s …”

Fire the administrators at EPA in charge of the Gold King mine work and cover up afterwards. Then settle the lawsuit from the Navajos and tour their lands and farms. Also test that idiot Colo. governor for toxic metals that he drank in defending EPA and Obama cover up efforts.

Pres. Trump is going to battle an extremely hostile bureaucracy and press from now to the end of his term. It will be relentless. I hope he’s up for it. I suggest that instead of being thin-skinned and defensive about such things, he turns it into a joke when he can, or name and shame, otherwise.

@ Mickey Reno, I fear you are right, I was part of government at one time and you would not believe the insidious methods people used to upset the apple cart, and frankly it does not take much!
It is truly a sad situation and the past 8 years have seen the government infested with people that actively hate Conservative people, the religious section etc. and they will do anything to screw things up. Hey with the UI and welfare system in place they aren’t even worried about getting fired.
It is almost like the families of suicide bombers that get paid thousands of dollars after a bombing blows up one of their family members! It is going to be a struggle, add in a hostile press and you get the picture, your advice is sound btw!

This is all ok though, because China is on the case now, having taken on the climate leadership role. This means they will be “leading by example”. This means we should limit our coal plant-building to whatever they do. Fair is fair.

It’s like Christmas morning every day. The icing on the cake is how devasting this is for the other side – the one that was gleefuly poised to destroying America, and along with it, truth and science. Their grief is our joy.

Could Pruitt in his quest for more scientific discussion re. climate change stipulate that any papers used as evidence must be complete with all data and procedures used to arrive at their conclusions? Peer review rules are crap and having more scrutiny of the papers might eliminate many of them. Or, having an open web based review of them before their conclusions are considered. That would be great reading!

I used to say “Let the purges begin” with a great deal of irony and humor in applying the obvious communist term against the obviously socialist-minded global warming and eco-activist political hordes.

Now I say it with all sincerity in the context of effecting a greater societal justice: “Let the purges begin.”

Let’s clean up the fake science and the fake environmental BS. Lets stop wasting billions in valuable govt and private resources and redirect it all to actually clean water and actually clean the air, all while strengthening the economy and creating lots of good-paying long-term full-time jobs that will make everyones lifestyles better, safer, healthier and more comfortable.

“And did we tell you the name of the game, boy?
We call it ‘riding the gravy train’!”

That grinding noise you hear is NOT the ice packs breaking up…. It is the collective gnashing of teeth by the hordes of NGOs, professors, grad students, and ‘professional climate activists’ that now must find honest and really productive work in the produce-or-get-fired private sector! Welcome to Reality, Y’All!

J Mac: “that now must find honest and really productive work in the produce-or-get-fired private sector!”
They might and they might not. I believe they’ll do a tremendous amount of damage before they let it go. Especially those currently in government that will be laid off..

I am not a Trump fan, not hardly, for many many very good reasons. But in terms of silver linings to his cloud of incompetence and buffoonery and sociopathic narcisissm (such as his idiotic going to mattresses to argue that his inauguration crowds were larger than our lying eyes clearly tell us), at least he is having nothing of the late, non-lamented Obama Administration’s foolishness on global warming hysteria.

Being a fervent supporter of a strong national defense, I am waiting for the executive order of Obama’s that directed DOD to adopt climate change as a key strategic consideration in defending our nation to be thrown on the ash heap of bad history. Along with these initial actions already taken to restore sanity to our environmental policies.

Hey Duane – about those ‘lying eyes’ of yours – just you understand how these pictures are painted for you – the press announced numbers in the early morning hours before the crowds showed up, Obama as sitting president deliberately slow-walked everyone through. THEN pictures of full crowds on Obama’s inauguration are cropped next to pre-assembly crowds at Trump’s. THEN, when Trump calls BS (because, as he has said, he fires back at these attempts to establish a narrative, so it does not become entrenched – which is the Progressive media’s standard operating procedure), they actually have the nerve to ask his press secretary if he was going to lie to them every day.

This was a direct, coordinated attempt by the press to throw salt on Trump’s tail – a direct screw job (one in an almost constant litany of similarly deliberate transgressions) and he quite rightly called them on it.

This is far from the only example of the press manufacturing reality, and it’s the kind of thing that has replaced actual coverage of the news – a predetermined narrative with facts, pictures, adjusted, edited, inversed to fit the story.

Trump Eyes DAPL As Water Protectors Regroup: In his first official press conference as White House press secretary, Sean Spicer strongly implied that the Trump administration will push through both the Dakota Access and Keystone pipelines as part of its “America First” energy plan.
__________________________________________

Looks like the de-growth/de-industrial movement in the USA has finally stopped. I sure hope so.
BUT,
Not too excited about 35% tariffs though – counter-productive at best, leads to depression at worst.
Not good for costs to consumers (ie. Walmart).

I disagree about counter-productive. Hurts economy in the short-term, yes, but strengthens economy in the long-term. Domestic production picks up the slack after a while. More entrepreneurs, more small businesses, more employment opportunities, less welfare dependents, less government expense on welfare. The benefits just pile on over time.

We seem to be the only country in the world completely refusing to take care of our domestic economy, for the sake of an ideal that just about everybody else pays mere lip service too. We need fair trade more than we need free trade.

I read today that the Michigan water problems (lead from pipe corrosion) are over. Lead levels are safe again. Was this an over-hyped problem or just a coincidence (that it coincides with Trump’s second day at the helm).

You know, it would seem to be at least good form for people to be supplied with water that will not poison them. Lead will cause permanent – that is permanent as in forever – brain damage in children. Over-hyped indeed. Poisonous water supplied to children so they can drink it.

The media keep reinforcing the party line.
Watching Sky News this morning (UK), the reporter said that Trump had allowed the pipelines to go ahead “in spite of overwhelming scientific evidence” on climate change.
Of course, if pressed the reporter would likely not have any clue as to what that “overwhelming scientific evidence” actually is, other than most likely to splutter “97%” and “CO2”